Tag Archives: The Immaculate Conception

The Catholic Church did not define the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of Mary as a dogma until 1854. Yet as early as 1616 Felipe III created the Real Junta de la Inmaculada and proclaimed the Spanish Crown as the greatest supporter of the doctrine. Ever since, the Spanish Monarchy was at the centre of an intense propaganda campaign intended to promote belief in the immaculate conception. Art played a key role in this project.

This seminar will explore the different aspects of this marketing operation in the Iberian kingdoms, in the Italian Viceroyalties and in Rome itself. From Madrid, Palermo and Seville, the speakers will unveil the images of one of the most striking campaigns of visual propaganda in history.

The exhibition Intacta María. Política y religiosidad en la España barroca, opening on 30 November 2017, analyses the process through which devotion to the Immaculate conception was created and popularised in early modern Spain. While the Immaculate Conception only became dogma in 1854, as early as 1616 the Spanish Monarchy became a staunch supporter of the theory, turning its defence into a national priority. In the following years, the Immaculate Conception became Spain’s most heartfelt devotion and a sign of national identity. Art played an important role in this process, amounting to what we may describe as a marketing campaign. This will be the focus of the Museo de Bellas Artes’ forthcoming exhibition, featuring more than 50 paintings, sculptures, prints and books borrowed from notable Spanish museums and churches such as the Museo Nacional de Escultura de Valladolid, the Cathedral of Seville, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, and many others.

A symposium on Spanish Art will take place from 23-25 October in Co Durham, highlighting collections in the area and launching a book on treasures of Spanish Art in Country Durham. The three-day event will include exclusive access to view Zurbarán’s Jacob and his Twelve Sons and a conference dinner at Auckland Castle.

Jointly organised by Auckland Castle, The Bowes Museum, and Durham University, this three-day symposium aims to highlight the outstanding collections of Spanish art held in County Durham. Internationally renowned academics and museum professionals will present a wide range of papers that will place these significant collections within their artistic, cultural, and historic context. The symposium will also be an opportunity to consider the reception of seventeenth-century Spanish art in Britain, marking the bicentenary of the arrival of Velázquez’s The Rokeby Venus in Teesdale (now in the National Gallery, London).

County Durham has historically been a hot spot for the collection and display of Spanish art, which fascinated influential figures such as Bishop Richard Trevor, John and Joséphine Bowes, and Frank Hall Standish. Today the results of this interest are to be found in the collections at The Bowes Museum and Auckland Castle, which together represent the most significant UK holdings of Spanish Golden Age art outside of London.

The symposium heralds a wider, long-term vision shared by Auckland Castle, The Bowes Museum, and Durham University, to establish County Durham as a centre for the study of Spanish art in the UK, and as a world-class visitor destination.

09.30 – 09.45Welcome and IntroductionAdrian Jenkins, Director of The Bowes Museum
09.45 – 10.25Art collecting as a language of friendship and affinity between England and Spain
during the seventeenth centuryToby Osborne, Senior Lecturer in History, Durham University
10.25 – 11.05Spanish masters and the spoils of war: the circulation of Spanish art in the era of Napoleon
Tom Stammers, Lecturer in History, Durham University
11.05 – 11.30 Coffee Break
11.30 – 12.10
Preliminary thoughts on materiality and spirituality in the works of Francisco de Zurbarán Cordula van Whye, Lecturer in History of Art, University of York
12.10 – 12.50Madrid’s monastic, artistic, and cultural heritage before the Confiscation of 1835. Report by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando
Itziar Aranna, Research Fellow, Academia de San Fernando,
12.50 – 14.00 Lunch – optional tours of the Museum14.00 – 14.30Frank Hall Standish (1799-1840), Collector of Durham, Duxbury and SevilleHoward Coutts, Keeper of Ceramics, The Bowes Museum
14.30 – 15.00Frank Hall Standish and his paintings acquisitions in SevilleXanthe Brooke, Senior Curator (Continental European Fine Art), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool15.00 – 15.40John Bowes and the sale of the Quinto Collection: an opportunity or a question of taste?Véronique Gérard Powell, Senior Lecturer (Honorary) University of Paris-Sorbonne15.40 – 16.15 Tea Break16.15 – 16.45 Closing Remarks17.00 – 18.00 Tours of Picture Gallery and Exhibition18.00 – 22.00 Drinks Reception and Conference Dinner